A Moment of Life

It seems that today was just a hodge podge of different issues all running together. My mind was very slow to respond (I know by saying this I am opening myself up to an untold number of juvenile "cut downs"). Maybe it was the fact that my two-year old son wanted to get an early start on the day, by rising at 4:45 AM! I don't guess it is really good parenting if you spank your kid when you are half asleep, but I seriously considered it. Maybe it was the acid reflux I had through the night from my supper the night before (I guess I have now offically turned into my dad and brother). Or maybe it was the sub-par machiatto (have no idea if you spell it that way) that I was eagerly anticipating. Perhaps it was the fact that I have been looking for my Bible and calendar since yesterday. And maybe it was my wife who told me the real reason I was aggravated was because it was my calendar that was lost. Not sure if any of these things had to do with how my day began, but I am sure they all had their part. However, despite these happenings, they were mere ripples on the water compared with the day at large.

The real day started with my continued journey in the Book of Acts, and I got some really great insight into witnessing and bridging relationships (it is amazing how the Bible does that). I usually try to read for about an hour during the first part of my morning, so I was able to dive back into my current study of "the emerging church." It is a movement that I am studying right now by reading two books about it, one in favor of it and one in opposition to it, although both of them say positive and negative things about it. I also made some phone calls and ran some errands (such as visiting the window shop, the post office, our treasurer's house, and a sign shop). After I did all that I ran to get my kids from school, and then did some newsletter and periodical readings about things going on in our town, which is more than a blog site can hold. I am also trying to keep up with this story about the Georgia Baptist Convention voting to oust Mercer University in Macon. I also read from this one Catholic paper how the problem with a lot of Christianity today is St. Augustine, the Apostle's Creed, and Martin Luther's contaminated doctrine of justification by faith alone. Since those things have been pretty important to my faith, I was interested to read someone else shred it apart. After picking myself up off the floor in the style of Switchfoot's "Dare You to Move" hit, I began to do some planning about the church and set a tentative date for me and Melissa to host another Family and Fun Fellowship at our house, since I talked about "Authentic Relationships" from Romans 12 yesterday, and hit on hospitality a great deal. I guess it is pretty important to not just preach the truth, but to do it as well (seems like I may have read that somewhere before). And then I finally studied for my Wednesday devotion (I try not to call it a sermon, since it is more of a sharing time, than preaching, and since it is more abbreviated as a result of our prayer time). And then I got ready for supper and took out the trash and talked with my kids (which I try to do at least twice a month). It was all in all a great day. And the truth is, I love my family. I was sitting at the supper table tonight thinking how great my wife is to put up with a jerk like me. And my kids are just great. I don't mean that in an artificial sense, either. They are far from perfect, of course, as we all are. For all of their irritating imperfections, they are kids. And kids can take the most pointless day and turn it into a moment of laughter or meaning where you are glad you're alive. Thanks God for your goodness to me in giving me my family.